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Saturday, January 14, 2012

Experience This! Taking a Spin through the Carsten Höller Exhibit

Experience at the New Museum finally closes this weekend, but I haven't stopped thinking about it. In fact, some of it popped up on a cup just today.

I saw the exhibition twice, the first time a race through on a Saturday afternoon. I was able to appreciate the whole thing from about five different perspectives and art historical viewpoints without reading a single word. Because I am a genius - not! I had prior help in the form of three distinguished art historians and critics who spoke engagingly and showed slides for an hour in the basement lecture hall at the museum, in a panel talk called "The Wondrous Worlds of Dr. Höller". I listened while covertly drinking a cup of tea and then taking notes on the empty.

Cup of the Day #96 by Gwyneth Leech

Twists and Turns and Notes from Experience

India ink on upcycled white paper take-out cup

Having considered Experience as imminent vs. transcendental art, as a hall of wonders, a clinic for the inducement of elevated states without the use of mind-altering drugs, an embodiment of animal and vegetal architecture, a game of seeing and shifting perspectives, and having explored the idea that the long lines are all part of the show (patterns of procession and unusual social engagement) I now had a firm foundation for threading the crowds upstairs. Thank you Ken Johnson, Spyridon Papapetros and Jesse Prinz!

I delighted in the ascending scale of the magic mushrooms on the ground floor, appreciating their monumentality (Papapetros). When a woman staggered over in strange goggles and asked me to take her photo, Papapetros' words came back again - the unusual social interaction is all part of the show. I happily snapped with her iphone and asked to peek through the goggles that turn everything upside down - altered perspectives without psychotropic drugs (Johnson).

Mushroom Monuments

Carsten Höller Experience

At the New Museum

Upstairs in the galleries - which I visited 2nd, 3rd, 4th to get the overall picture - the famous silver slide burrowed straight through the cement floors! How fabulous. Here was Papapetros' animal architecture of "burrowing, netting and nesting". In the middle gallery I gathered with strangers to exclaim as shrieking figures hurtled past inside the tube. Yes, it was a piece of animated sculpture.

The top gallery housed the entrance to the slide, a hanging sculpture of metal bird cages containing live canaries and a mirrored carousel which inches along in slow motion - altered perceptions again. Bemused viewers dangled their feet and watched the changing reflections, calm and casual in contrast to the anxiety mounting in the line of people nearest the mouth of the slide. Relieved that I had no time to wait for the slide, I just took in the spectacle as an observer. Then I trotted down to the 2nd floor to watch people stagger out into a blinking gallery full of brightly colored animal casts.

Cup of the Day #96 by Gwyneth Leech

Twists and Turns and Notes from Experience

India ink on upcycled white paper take-out cup

Jesse Prinz opined that the feeling of fear produced by the slide changes perception, heightening a feeling of the sublime. Certainly the riders seemed rather changed as they staggered through the gallery after completing their turns, but I am not sure they knew what they were looking at. I did not try the flotation tank, because the line was several hours long, but I certainly did enjoy waving my arms in front of the infrared camera in a side room with other New Yorkers as our regulation black attire was turned to white on the screen.

Mirrored Carousel

Carsten Höller Experience

At the New Museum

In a strange and unusual turn of events, when I got home my 15 year old daughter begged me to take her to see the Höller show. What, she really wants to go to a museum!? Yes, everyone was talking about it at school! So we went together one late afternoon the week before it closed. This time the line for the slide was only 45 minutes long. We joined the end and found it oddly enjoyable to pass the time watching the slowly rotating carousel and listening to the canaries singing in response to the intermittent screaming of people in descent.

Tunnel slide

Carsten Höller Experience

At the New Museum

When it came our turn, as the museum guards gave us helmets and instructions, we were exhorted to be good sports and vocalize on the way down. So we did, gustily, during the 5 second twisting plunge to the 2nd floor. There I got unsteadily to my feet and I have to say, I did find the blinking lights of terra firma to be quite sublime.

We continued on through the exhibit and after exploring every nook and cranny and interactive activity, with and without upside down goggles, I asked my daughter:
"So what is your final word on the Carsten Höller show?"